NMR ISSUE 17

Astrological Forecast 17
Diving Beetle
Editorial 17
Epilogue
Hymn to the God
It's the End of the World as Your Know It
Lady of Light
Letters 17
Love and Magic
Lover, the Feeling and Love, the State of Being
New Age Scapegoat
Our Constitutional Rights and Education
Qabalistic Explanation of the Parts of the Soul
Seth, Witchcraft and a New Definition of Magick
The Oldest Magick
The Sacred Wheel
The Wiccan Christ
Understanding Your Dreams
What is Quabalah?

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The Wicca Christ

Alex Miller-Mignone

The image of Christ on the cross and the Witch riding a broomstick are in essence the same. Both the cross and the broomstick represent the tree from which each was made; and this is the same tree as the Bodhi tree beneath which Gautama the Buddha achieved enlightenment. But what is the tree, metaphorically? It is that inner process which demands growth and shapes development, yet which the consciousness rarely, if ever, accesses.

Another clue to the connection between the three symbols is their use of the Moon phase. On a general level, all three are commonly depicted encompassed within, or crowned with, orbs—a device similar to the creation of a mandala. The Buddha attained enlightenment under the Taurus Full Moon at Wesak. The Christian cross is often portrayed, as in the Celtic design, with a circle, representing the same full consciousness of objective awareness. The difference is that the Buddhist version retains the feminine Moon symbol in its original form, while patriarchal Christianity's traditional emphasis on historicity changes that Moon orb to the Sun—the Church explicitly states that the crucifixion was at the ninth hour, or three p.m. The Hallowe'en Witch is commonly depicted astride her broom framed by either the orb of the full moon or, more significantly, the darkness within the limb of the waning crescent, or balsamic phase.

Building upon this, we can understand the timing of the Christian Easter. Remember that the constant solar disk was originally a metaphor for the changing moon. Now we can see that Easter, as the Sunday after the first full moon of the vernal equinox, represents the Moon's disseminating phase. The time of three p.m. confirms this. If we divide the sun's daily cycle into eight phases, like those of the moon, we find that each is three hours long. Using noon as the time of the culminating or full phase position, three p.m. becomes the start of the disseminating phase. [Describing noon as the full phase puts the sun's new phase (death-and-rebirth point) at midnight. This seems appropriate in a tradition that hallows the Winter Solstice, the darkest day of the year, as the birthday of the new solar deity.] Therefore, the solar disk behind the crucified Jesus, although accurate astronomically, actually represents the disseminating phase of the Moon.

This is perfectly understandable, for the Buddha preceded the Christ by 500 years; he became enlightened with full, objective awareness, which he then shared with his disciples. But it was not until the time of the Christ that the Word began to be truly spread, or be disseminated, to the masses. What then of the Witch? If the Buddha represents the attainment of enlightenment, and the Christ represents sharing this experience with others, what does the Witch's association with the waning crescent mean? Traditionally the waning crescent, or balsamic, phase refers to the release of energies accumulated in the previous phases of the cycle—a cleansing or purification before the subsequent new moon rebirths the ever-evolving cycle. We can intuit then that those of us on the Wiccan path are in preparation for a rebirth to a new plane of consciousness. Having worked through the other seven phases we are now releasing both the accumulated energies and the negative traits assimilated over many lifetimes.

Now we can understand the traditional Buddhist emphasis on withdrawal from the world into the contemplative life of the secluded monastery, where in the silence one can achieve enlightenment. So, too, can we see Christianity's accent upon militant conversion; and the Witch's often-solitary path, only loosely connected to others on the same journey. The difference between these paths is foreshadowed by the lunar phases that represent the phases of spiritual experience. Other religious traditions of the world can be equated with the remaining phases. For example shamanism, with its accent on personal power, would represent the new moon phase. Taoism, so focused on doing without doing, is a cerebral system representative of the crisis of consciousness of the waning square phase.

So when we see the Witch astride the broom, instead of the pimple nosed hag of the Western Christian tradition, see rather the wise, enlightened being which s/he is—no longer passively seated beneath the tree, no longer crucified on its branches, but in control, using its power to rise to a higher level of being and manifestation.